Sanctuary Counties: The Support System for the Undocumented

Note: some of the government data sites linked here may be temporarily down in accordance with recent Executive Orders and related guidance.

In 2016, under President Trump, many undocumented immigrants were forcibly deported, regardless of the severity of the crime they committed, if they ever did commit one that is. The total number expelled from the years of 2016-2020 that have not been allowed to return is estimated to be well over 500,000 undocumented individuals, while only 300,000 had been acquitted or taken back during that time. How did this come to be? Well, prior to becoming president, Donald Trump outlined a ‘Mass Deportation’ plan that received wide criticism and was thought to be an election tactic. He ignored the critics, and maintained his hard stance well into the beginning of his presidency to the point where his initial immigration policies were halted or intentionally hampered by many states, like California, that house a large, diverse refugee and migrant population, who are documented or otherwise not.

Due to their blatant disregard for cooperating with his plan, in January of 2017, President Trump passed Executive Order 13768: Enhancing public safety in the interior of the United States, and placed Tom Homan, a man who shares his views on immigration, as chief of ICE. This executive order was an act that was intended to stop states that don’t cooperate with ICE or the federal government, by reporting the legal status of the undocumented and/ or aiding in providing information about their current whereabouts and keeping them in prison for longer than their intended release date, from receiving federal grants. Homan himself was, and still is, a huge proponent of separating families in order to deter illegal immigration, and his views and actions were so extreme that with the public backlash he was facing, and the lacking results he was producing due to being met with opposition at every attempt, he ended up retiring a year and a half later from being the Chief of ICE in 2018.

Now, this executive order was targeted at sanctuary cities/counties, places in the US that help undocumented immigrants regardless of federal laws, in order to have them give up anyone with a criminal record. Most of the order was reaffirming the previous statement and highlighting the state divisions and actions that would be affected, and utilized, respectively, however, I want to highlight sections 5 and 13. Section 5: Priorities of removal, completely redefined what constitutes a crime for an undocumented individual that warrants removal, widening it to such a degree so that it now accounts for even a simple accusation of a crime. In section 13, an entirely new office was created for the victims of immigration crimes. I am not against having individuals who commit crimes be punished, nor am I against supporting the victims of crimes, however, under this policy, and the Trump administration, the individuals up for deportation would only need to be undocumented and to have been accused, yes, only accused of committing a crime to qualify for immediate deportation, and with an office solely built for supporting victims of supposed immigrant crimes, it is not surprising that ICE was allowed as much free rein as it had during his term. In comparison to this, under previous administrations, undocumented immigrants would have to be convicted of committing multiple felonies to be up for deportation, hence why so many states were against this entire policy, and even labelled it unconstitutional, to the point were less than 9 months later, a nationwide injunction was issued on it.

Even before this injunction went into effect, many undocumented individuals who had been following the law and keeping contact with their ICE agents were also prematurely deported due to a conveniently misplaced fact in their file that ICE only just found. In fact, ICE arrests went up 40% compared to previous years alone. As significant as this is, what is also rarely discussed is how small the proportion of crimes committed by undocumented immigrants really is. A study conducted by the National institute of Justice actually found that U.S. citizens and legal immigrants actually committed more crimes, each of them single handedly more than double that of the amount done by undocumented individuals. In San Diego, this same pattern was reported, with the additional difference of undocumented immigrant committed crimes actually going down while crimes committed by U.S. citizens have been on the rise. Further sources report that the ‘undocumented / illegal migrant crime wave’ constantly mentioned in the past, and now during the most recent election is not only baseless, but also an over exaggerated statement because it draws on one or two instances, and generalizes it to the whole population.

As difficult as this must have been, now, with Trump’s second term around the corner, the renewed promise to fully accomplish the Mass Deportation plan this time, and Tom Homan’s official return as border Czar, more extensive change will likely occur. The mistakes made the first time will not be repeated, and instead of appealing to, and later attempting to force the hands of sanctuary cities/counties to give up the undocumented immigrants they are ‘harboring’ , ICE will most likely conduct unwarranted searches as they did near the end of President Trump’s term, and this time, there will be a huge emphasis on not only getting undocumented immigrants out, but also keeping them out with Tom Homan in charge. I want to qualify this by saying that the importance of securing the border is not negative, the issue lies in the abuse of power that can be displayed against a single group of people in order to push forward an agenda. Of course, in anticipation of this agenda, and of the passing of more policies like E.O. 13768, sanctuary cities/counties will attempt to separate local law enforcement from federal law enforcement like ICE, to maintain their stance on not providing any information on the legal status of their residents, and prevent access to detained individuals that are suspected of being undocumented.

In addition to this, but on a more local note, San Diego, a county that harbors many refugees, migrants, and possibly undocumented individuals from many extremely diverse backgrounds, is actually looking to take up more extreme versions of laws in other sanctuary counties like Los Angeles and San Jose. Just this past Tuesday (December 10th, 2024), San Diego Board of County Supervisors voted in favor of limiting the aid that they will give federal officers in deporting suspected individuals, creating a ‘super’ sanctuary county, because they want to safeguard their community. Initially, San Diego had sanctuary laws passed that guaranteed limited support unless the crimes committed were egregious, and they also guaranteed limited control in prisons operations like withholding offenders from leaving, unless, again, the crimes warranted severe action. This new ‘super’ bill does not allow for providing aid to federal workers in any capacity relating to illegal immigrants, and it is indeed facing conflicting reception from one of the key groups meant to help uphold it, the Sheriff’s office. I have no doubt that San Diego will end up setting an example for other sanctuary counties in California, but of course, since it is a first of its kind attempt at this, it will be difficult to see the results so early.

Now, personally, I believe that sanctuary counties are correct in their support of the undocumented, despite the negative perception surrounding them. Of course, for the undocumented, there will be outliers, like in every group, and a few individuals are never representative of the group as a whole, so to hyper fixate on a collective due to an unrepresentative minority is to ignore the problem and focus on something else entirely; to intentionally spread misinformation based on exaggerations about them, harass anyone who helps them, and then expect to receive unconditional support in expelling them for little to no reason should not be worth considering too seriously, whether it was then or now, and sanctuary counties understand that.